Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is
light." Matthew 11:29-30
We were considering
the Christian idea of 'putting on Christ', or first 'dressing up' as a son of
God in order that you may finally become a real son. What I want to make clear
is that this is not one among many jobs a Christian has to do; and it is not a sort
of special exercise for the top class. It is the whole of Christianity.
Christianity offers nothing else at all. ....
The Christian way is
different: harder, and easier. Christ says 'Give me All. I don't want so much
of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I
have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are
any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to
have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop
it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which
you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I
will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will
shall become yours.'
Both harder and easier
than what we are all trying to do. You have noticed, I expect, that Christ
Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very
easy. He says, 'Take up your Cross'—in other words, it is like going to be
beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, 'My yoke is easy
and my burden light.' He means both.
Then he
said to them all: "If anyone would come after me,
he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke
9:23
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